The Ice Dogs didn’t have to worry about any kind of heart-breaking loss on Saturday night.

Instead, they got just plain whooped before a Long Beach Arena crowd of 2,344, falling to the Idaho Steelheads, 4-1, to stretch their winless streak to three games.

On Friday night, the Ice Dogs recorded a season-high and possibly franchise-high 64 shots but were forced to settle for a 2-1 shootout loss against Bakersfield. That kind of effort and the lack of success was certainly a heart-breaker.

But this one was more of the same — lack of team play, effort and character.

“Ask them for the answers,” said Ice Dogs coach Malcolm Cameron, thoroughly irate. “They should be the ones held accountable. I can’t work any harder, motivate them more, or come up with any more gimmicks than I have.”

So…

“We have been searching for answers for several games now,” said veteran Sean McAslan. “The best teams are good because they are on the same page, do the same things. We do that for about 20 to 30 minutes. Teams like us, whether it’s the ECHL, AHL or NHL, don’t ever accomplish anything.

“He (Cameron) gives us a game plan that works. It’s not and it works. But we just aren’t buying into it.”

The Ice Dogs (14-15-4) didn’t have anything close to the same zip Saturday night, getting only 22 shots on net, and were essentially shut down over the first two periods by the Steelheads (20-10-2), who snapped their own three-game slide.

Long Beach seemed to feed off of the previous game at the outset, but gradually the Steelheads gained momentum — and then the lead, on ECHL leading scorer Garrett Bembridge’s power-play goal at 14:18 of the first period.

Idaho, which has four victories in five games against the Ice Dogs this season, kept up the pace in the second period and made it 3-0 on goals from Mike Gabinet and Bembridge’s second of the game.

Cameron swapped out starting goaltender Olivier Michaud for Jaroslav Halak after the third goal at 10:43, and Halak shut the door for the remainder of the period to give the Ice Dogs a chance in the third.

Michaud returned for the start of the third, and so did the Ice Dogs.

They flicked on the switch right from the drop, and 14 seconds later Ash Goldie beat Idaho goalie Matt Yeats to make it 3-1.

The rest of the third period was predominantly owned by the Ice Dogs, who put 11 shots on net — half of their game total. But it was too little too late for a team again struggling to score goals. Over last three games, the Ice Dogs, who wasted six power-play chances, have managed just four goals.

Mike Stutzel iced the game for Idaho with an empty-net goal with 43 seconds left.

ICE DOGS NOTES: After re-examining the injured knee of Marco Rosa, who hit knee-to-knee with a Bakersfield player Friday, Cameron learned Saturday that he would be without the 2004-05 ECHL Rookie of the Year runner-up for 3 to 4 weeks.

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